Summer solstice brings fiery energy to Montclair

By Gwen Orel

Staff Writer |

The Montclair Times

If summer can't come too soon for you, you're in luck: the wait is nearly over. Tomorrow, June 21, is the summer solstice. The sun is at its highest point in the sky in the Northern Hemisphere. The day will last 15 hours, five minutes and 42 seconds, according to timeanddate.com, and the sun won't go down until 8:31 p.m.

Nancy Adlman will hold a summer solstice women's shamanic healing circle in her Montclair home tonight, using drums, rattle sticks and Tibetan bowls to help people enter into a trance state.

And it means summer has begun.

Montclairite Daniel McBride, a.k.a. Dalien, with his hang drum at Asana House on Valley Road, one of his favorite haunts in Montclair. On Friday, June 21, McBride, performing as 13hands, will play at the Summer Solstice Celebration presented by New Jersey Arts Incubator at the Oskar Schindler Performing Arts Center, West Orange.

For Wiccans and other pagans, observing the solstice is a part of their religion. Many ancient sites, including Stonehenge in England, Newgrange in Ireland, and Machu Picchu in Peru, have orientations to the solstice. For students, the solstice means school is nearly out. For agricultural workers, it means the busy season has begun.

Montclairites can mark the day by viewing a film about farming or attending a women's shamanic circle tonight, buying summer fruits at the Montclair Farmers Market on Friday, or by attending a Summer Solstice Celebration, including a performance and ritual, in West Orange outdoors on Friday night.

SUMMER MEANS WORKING

Summer is the growing season, said municipal Environmental Coordinator Gray Russell, so he decided to associate the screening tonight of "Sourlands" with the solstice. The movie about the obstacles New Jersey farmers face is part of the Green Film Series at the Montclair Public Library, 50 South Fullerton Ave., at 6:30 p.m.

Russell noted that the Montclair Farmers Market is open on Friday, the day of the solstice itself.

The longest day of the year is an appropriate time to think about global warming, Russell said.

Although it's a time of work for farmers, Russell told The Times, the solstice also brings a feeling of possibility. "Summer gives you that feeling of eternal youth. It's the beginning of summer. It's all stretched out in front of you."

SUMMER MEANS PRAYING

At the summer solstice, the sun god is at the peak of his powers, said Davis Aistars, a Wiccan who owns the shop Mystic Spirit, 324 Bloomfield Ave., with his wife Karen. One ritual Wiccans may perform at summer solstice is lighting a bonfire and jumping over it, "leaving behind that which no longer serves you," he said. "It's a happy time, a festival time."

Maggi Setti, a Wiccan high priestess who often runs workshops at Mystic Spirit, said that in Wicca, "solar holidays are about connecting with what's going on energetically in the seasons and the world. Connecting to the sun literally is a religious component." Setti said she intends to celebrate the event at noon on Saturday by making a talisman that "will remind me of the sun's energy and help me feel energetic and inspired." It's a time to consider what the harvest of the year will be, and begin working on those things, Setti said.

When Setti speaks of the sun gods, she means not just the fiery, determined energy of summer, but also actual beings, she said. On one solstice, Setti said she met the god Helios through a priest doing a form of divine possession that would bring the god into his body. She told Helios that she hated her job and needed doors to open. The god replied, "You have nothing to worry about; just jump, and it will be there," she recalled.

Setti quit, and her dream job came through within a week, she said.

SOLSTICE MEANS HEALING

Solstice is also a time to heal, because the heart opens, said Nancy Adlman, a shamanic healer in Montclair.

Adlman, also known as Nancy Dakota, is holding a summer solstice shamanic healing circle for women at her home in Montclair tonight. She said she will do a few readings, perhaps something from the "Thirteen Original Clan Mothers" book, maybe a poem about summer by Mary Oliver, before performing her ancient form of healing for the women who attend. Adlman said she holds these circles on the third Thursday of each month, and often connects them to the calendar.

A shaman is someone who is a vessel, and able to go into an altered state to access wisdom, Adlman said. "Drumming, rattling puts people into a dream state," she said. "Once, three people saw a white wolf on their journey." Women interested in participating can visit her website, shamanismhealing.net, for more information.

Adlman helped to plan the Summer Solstice Celebration at the Oskar Schindler for the Performing Arts in West Orange, 4 Boland Drive, that will take place on Friday, with New Jersey Arts Incubator (NJAI) founder Amy Simon. The free outdoor event, which begins at 7 p.m., will include performances from circle drummer Mark Woods, Celtic harper Odarka, The Center for Spiritual Living of North Jersey's One Voice choir, Montclair-based 13 Hands, aka Dalien, spoken word artists, arts and crafts, group salutations to the sun and more, she said. More information is at njai.org.

Simon said she wanted to open the first season for NJAI, a nonprofit arts organization dedicated to economic development for artists, at the West Orange amphitheatre that looks out on a lake and rolling hills, with a solstice celebration. "It's a perfect day to start a summer season," Simon said. "It always had great meaning for me as a person. I remember as a kid, playing with my friends on the street on summer nights, and thinking how the days went on and on and how late we could stay out. It's fun but it's also spiritual. It's a blessing on the season to have all these people with positive energy up there."

One of those spiritual artists is Montclairite Daniel McBride. McBride is also called Dalien because, the artist explained, he once miswrote his name on a contract, and it stuck, and 13 Hands, the name of his band.

"I'm the only Grammy-nominated professor of Yoga who cured Crohn's," he said with a laugh, demonstrating the Tibetan hang drum at Asana House, on Valley Road. McBride is an adjunct instructor in Montclair State University, a yoga teacher, and a therapist, as well as a musician.

In 2006, Dalien's music made it to the ballot round of the independent category of the Grammies. McBride explained that he suffered with colitis and Crohn's from a young age, and has used diet, music and yoga to heal. McBride is about to release a new album titled, "Thumbs Up High Five." He said he explored the title song using pop, chant and folk styles. One of the things the song is about is the lack of substance in popular music, he said. A YouTube medley of the song is at the New Jersey Arts Incubator site.

The title of the band, which has been a trio, a duo and is now a solo, stems from a Malaysian form of Martial Arts, where the position of the hands has an effect on the creation of energy.Creating energy is natural to the solstice, McBride said: "Summer is about fire. It's a time for spiritual energy. You use the heat of the summer to start moving.

If summer can't come too soon for you, you're in luck: the wait is nearly over. Tomorrow, June 21, is the summer solstice. The sun is at its highest point in the sky in the Northern Hemisphere. The day will last 15 hours, five minutes and 42 seconds, according to timeanddate.com, and the sun won't go down until 8:31 p.m.

Montclairite Daniel McBride, a.k.a. Dalien, with his hang drum at Asana House on Valley Road, one of his favorite haunts in Montclair. On Friday, June 21, McBride, performing as 13hands, will play at the Summer Solstice Celebration presented by New Jersey Arts Incubator at the Oskar Schindler Performing Arts Center, West Orange.

For Wiccans and other pagans, observing the solstice is a part of their religion. Many ancient sites, including Stonehenge in England, Newgrange in Ireland, and Machu Picchu in Peru, have orientations to the solstice. For students, the solstice means school is nearly out. For agricultural workers, it means the busy season has begun.

Montclairites can mark the day by viewing a film about farming or attending a women's shamanic circle tonight, buying summer fruits at the Montclair Farmers Market on Friday, or by attending a Summer Solstice Celebration, including a performance and ritual, in West Orange outdoors on Friday night.

SUMMER MEANS WORKING

Summer is the growing season, said municipal Environmental Coordinator Gray Russell, so he decided to associate the screening tonight of "Sourlands" with the solstice. The movie about the obstacles New Jersey farmers face is part of the Green Film Series at the Montclair Public Library, 50 South Fullerton Ave., at 6:30 p.m.

Russell noted that the Montclair Farmers Market is open on Friday, the day of the solstice itself.

The longest day of the year is an appropriate time to think about global warming, Russell said.

Although it's a time of work for farmers, Russell told The Times, the solstice also brings a feeling of possibility. "Summer gives you that feeling of eternal youth. It's the beginning of summer. It's all stretched out in front of you."

SUMMER MEANS PRAYING

At the summer solstice, the sun god is at the peak of his powers, said Davis Aistars, a Wiccan who owns the shop Mystic Spirit, 324 Bloomfield Ave., with his wife Karen. One ritual Wiccans may perform at summer solstice is lighting a bonfire and jumping over it, "leaving behind that which no longer serves you," he said. "It's a happy time, a festival time."

Maggi Setti, a Wiccan high priestess who often runs workshops at Mystic Spirit, said that in Wicca, "solar holidays are about connecting with what's going on energetically in the seasons and the world. Connecting to the sun literally is a religious component." Setti said she intends to celebrate the event at noon on Saturday by making a talisman that "will remind me of the sun's energy and help me feel energetic and inspired." It's a time to consider what the harvest of the year will be, and begin working on those things, Setti said.

When Setti speaks of the sun gods, she means not just the fiery, determined energy of summer, but also actual beings, she said. On one solstice, Setti said she met the god Helios through a priest doing a form of divine possession that would bring the god into his body. She told Helios that she hated her job and needed doors to open. The god replied, "You have nothing to worry about; just jump, and it will be there," she recalled.

Setti quit, and her dream job came through within a week, she said.

SOLSTICE MEANS HEALING

Solstice is also a time to heal, because the heart opens, said Nancy Adlman, a shamanic healer in Montclair.

Adlman, also known as Nancy Dakota, is holding a summer solstice shamanic healing circle for women at her home in Montclair tonight. She said she will do a few readings, perhaps something from the "Thirteen Original Clan Mothers" book, maybe a poem about summer by Mary Oliver, before performing her ancient form of healing for the women who attend. Adlman said she holds these circles on the third Thursday of each month, and often connects them to the calendar.

A shaman is someone who is a vessel, and able to go into an altered state to access wisdom, Adlman said. "Drumming, rattling puts people into a dream state," she said. "Once, three people saw a white wolf on their journey." Women interested in participating can visit her website, shamanismhealing.net, for more information.

Adlman helped to plan the Summer Solstice Celebration at the Oskar Schindler for the Performing Arts in West Orange, 4 Boland Drive, that will take place on Friday, with New Jersey Arts Incubator (NJAI) founder Amy Simon. The free outdoor event, which begins at 7 p.m., will include performances from circle drummer Mark Woods, Celtic harper Odarka, The Center for Spiritual Living of North Jersey's One Voice choir, Montclair-based 13 Hands, aka Dalien, spoken word artists, arts and crafts, group salutations to the sun and more, she said. More information is at njai.org.

Simon said she wanted to open the first season for NJAI, a nonprofit arts organization dedicated to economic development for artists, at the West Orange amphitheatre that looks out on a lake and rolling hills, with a solstice celebration. "It's a perfect day to start a summer season," Simon said. "It always had great meaning for me as a person. I remember as a kid, playing with my friends on the street on summer nights, and thinking how the days went on and on and how late we could stay out. It's fun but it's also spiritual. It's a blessing on the season to have all these people with positive energy up there."